Forget the Miatas clogging America's sorority-house parking lots. Racing Beat's Miata makeover is for the hard-core enthusiast. This is a Miata shorn of friendly compromises and distilled down to the essence of mechanical attraction. It's powerful, its reflexes are immediate, and it grabs corners kleptomaniacally.

Starting with a base Miata, Racing Beat first reverted to manual steering and then transplanted the six-speed transmission and Torsen limited-slip differential from the 10th Anniversary Edition Miata. The result is a lightweight Miata (weighing 126 pounds less than our last anniversary Miata) with the six-speed's close ratios and the Torsen's superior traction -- a combination Mazda doesn't offer. It should.

Racing Beat optimized the engine with its own K & N-filtered intake and Tri-Y ceramic-coated header feeding back into an exhaust system quieted by the company's Power Pulse muffler. Furthering the advantage are a lightweight aluminum flywheel and a new clutch assembly. The company measured a 14-hp increase in power at the rear wheels, but the character of that newfound power is improved markedly with more torque available at every rpm. Figure 158 hp at the crank. Spinning through shorter gearing, the Racing Beat car manages a 6.7-second trip from 0 to 60 mph (1.1 seconds faster than stock). This 1.8-liter four feels like the 2.0-liter in the old Nissan Sentra SE-R, and that's high praise around here.

The engine may be lightly modified, but the chassis is transmogrified. Koni makes the shocks, but everything else --the front and rear subframe braces, the oversize anti-roll bars, the lower-control-arm reinforcement flanges, and the coil springs (which lower the car an inch) -- is built by Racing Beat. The trick, though, may be the modestly sized but sticky, nearly grooveless P205/50ZR-15 Kumho V-700 tires on 6.5-by-15-inch Racing Hart CP-F wheels. A popular West Coast autocross tire, it's an open question how they'd perform in sloppy weather or hold up as ordinary commuters, but on a dry track, they're magic. How about 1.03 g on the skidpad? Or a 1:20.6 lap of the Streets of Willow -- nearly as quick as the King/Mugen Integra, despite giving up 62 hp to that racer? We'd skip the tonneau cover, the rear wing, the "style bar," and the leather seat covers to rein in expenses, and we'd add Racing Beat's $11,066 functional modifications over an extended time.

On the road, this Miata is stiffer than stock, but the ride is hardly brutal, the steering is heavy, and the rumpy note of the exhaust is intoxicating. What's best is how neutral it remains in the corners -- that and the exceptional grip (we'd like to try it on less radical tires). If Colin Chapman had run Mazda, this is what the Miata would be.- JPH